Just For Us
by imagineif
Summary: Emily wants to spend Valentine's Day alone with Ross, Chandler wants the day alone with Monica, and the others are just fed up. RE MC Ch6 Final Rachel Phoebe and Joey turn up.
1. Default Chapter

This follows on the same 'world' as my first TOW Ross Catches up with Emily.

Just for Us

'What are we going to do on Valentine's day?' Ross said. 'It'll be our first Valentine's day together.' He was feeling excited about it. This first year with Emily was exciting — a year of firsts and everything, was perfect. Except for the wedding, but they'd got over that. He still had the occasional ache from the accident, when he'd been hit by a minivan, chasing after Emily when she'd spotted him at the airport with Rachel. He couldn't afford to lose her, and he hadn't.

'What ever you like,' Emily said, 'Only I want it to be a day just for us.'

'Of course it will be for us,' Ross said. What did she think he planned to do? Throw a party?

'I know, at least that's the way you intend it, but somehow everyone else seems to be tagging along when we plan something special just for us,' Emily said.

'Not always,' Ross protested.

'What about my birthday?' Emily challenged. It was to have been a special dinner at a restaurant — then everyone had turned up. It wasn't so much that the plan had gone bad, just different. But he couldn't deny that they'd stayed out later than they'd expected and when they'd got home, the candles, the bubble bath and other treats were rejected in favour of bed — and sleep.

'Okay, but they wanted to say hello,' he said.

'I know, I was glad to see them, but we planned it was just to be the two of us, at the restaurant, and then somehow Joey turned up and then everyone else. And then Christmas. It's not as though that's a big deal for your family, and I thought we could have a day to ourselves, but that didn't happen either.'

'Well...'

'So we were going to have the next day to ourselves, Boxing day, which was not special to anyone except to ourselves, except Rachel wanted to come along with us to Vermont.'

'You have forgiven Rachel haven't you?'

'Yes, don't change the subject,' Emily said.

'She was feeling bad about her break up,' Ross said, 'And Monica was busy with Chandler, and Phoebe was away, and Joey had a date...'

'Of course, when they need help, we should help,' Emily said, 'But what about New Years day? We'd already been to a New Years party with everyone. Joey and Phoebe were just bored.'

'You liked Thanksgiving,' Ross said, 'That was with everyone.'

'Of course I did. I loved that day, and your birthday too, but just because I liked spending those with everyone doesn't mean that I want to spend every single day of significance with them. I married you, Ross, not all of your friends. Can't we strike a balance between seeing them and having time to ourselves.' Emily pleaded. 'That isn't too much to ask is it?'

'Okay,' Ross said, 'I promise, we're going to have tomorrow to ourselves.' We have time to ourselves though. In there,' Ross said, indicating the bedroom. 'And here, it's just the two of us.' The doorbell rang. Emily gave him a look.

'I wonder who that could be?' She went to answer the door, 'Hello Chandler.'

'Hi Emily, is Ross there?'

'Yes, come in,' she invited. 'I'd better get going,' Emily said to Ross.

'I don't mean to split anything up,' Chandler said.

'No, you're not doing that,' Emily said. 'It's tomorrow that's the special day.'

'Yeah, of course,' Chandler said. 'Us too. See you later at Central Perk.'

'Bye.'

Chandler settled himself down, helping himself to coffee.

'I hope I didn't interrupt,' he said, not looking very regretful.

'It's Okay. We were just taking about what we were doing for Valentine's day.'

'What have you got planned?'

'I don't know,' Ross said. 'I've got to think of something for just us two.'

'Well of course just you two. I don't need you working something out for me,' Chandler said. 'But have you got any ideas?'

'No,' Ross said. 'I can think of a present, lots of presents, but I'm all out of ideas.'

'Me too,' Chandler said. 'It's got to be special, it's our first.'

Chandler left Ross thinking, I've got to think of something, something really special, something where people aren't always going to be dropping in on us. Although dates with Monica went well, really well, it seemed that their big celebrations had to involve everybody. Monica loved to have everyone around, but Chandler just wanted her to himself.

She wouldn't spoil Valentine's day by inviting anyone along would she? But Phoebe was feeling down, and Rachel was single again after that episode with the taxi driver, and Joey could be relied to turn up at the wrong time… The best thing was to take her by surprise, Chandler decided. He would plan something secret. If she didn't know about it, she couldn't tell everyone else what was going on and invite them along. In fact, he'd take her right out of town, so even if she did happen to call anyone, they just couldn't turn up.

He frowned. There had been something in the paper about good deals on flights to Florida — perhaps they could take a quick trip there. Once they were right out of town, it would be just them, with no interruptions. No calls from friends or family, nothing. To his annoyance, he realised he'd left that paper with Ross. Oh well, he could buy another one.


	2. Fun In The Kitchen

When Chandler found Monica, she was busy in the kitchen, cooking up a storm. At a glance, he realised that the quantities were more than just for the two of them.

'Hi,' he said as he walked in, 'What's cookin' good lookin'?' Monica rolled her eyes, permitted Chandler to put an arm round her waist and kiss her on the cheek.

'This is for tonight,' she said. 'We're going to have Phoebe and Rachel around for dinner.'

'Oh,' he said. It seemed to him that although they had moved in with each other so that they could have more time together, that really, it had made no difference. Evenings alone were just as rare as before, because people were always coming round. Then he felt mean for thinking that way. The girls were having a hard time at the moment…

'Chandler, will you let go?' Monica asked with slight impatience.

'Why?' He smiled into her hair. One of the nice things about holding Monica was getting the smell of her hair.

'Because I'm cooking! It could be very dangerous.' The hand that wasn't holding a kitchen knife plucked at his wrist, and acquiescing, he let go. After all, she was the one with the knife.

He wandered over to the kitchen table.

'What are we having?'

'The main course is a vegetarian lasagne.' Chandler could see the recipe on the kitchen table, and read through it. He knew that for Monica, the recipe was a mere suggestion. What she came up with would always be better. Like Phoebe, Chandler could see the future and with a grin he saw that the future had a good meal in it.

'So how are the girls?' he asked.

'Like you'd expect.'

'Reading magazines and runes?' Chandler asked.

'Well Rachel's not feeling that bad,' Monica said, 'She's more annoyed by that guy she was seeing than anything else.'

'I don't know why she went out with him,' Chandler observed.

'He was good looking,' Monica said, her voice wavering. They both knew that this was not a good enough reason, under the circumstances.

'He flossed his teeth at the dinner table. And then studied the contents,' Chandler said. 'I mean, she kissed the guy.'

'After he flossed,' Monica said.

'Better than before he flossed, I suppose,' Chandler said. 'And his cell phone ring was so stupid…'

'What about yours?' Monica asked. Just then, Chandler's new cell phone went off, with the tune, Yankee Doodle.

'Okay okay,' he said hastily. He tried a new tune every day but none seemed to really be him. On the whole, the novelty aspect of the phone was wearing off. He was really going to have to find something ordinary. The call was from the travel agency, confirming all his bookings. 'Thank you,' he said, ending the call.

'Who was that?' Monica asked. He wanted the plans to be a surprise, and he wanted no chance of any alteration to fit in needy friends.

'Oh, just someone from work.'

'Oh,' Monica said. 'Is there a problem?'

'No problem at all, everything's just fine.'

'Why are they calling you on the weekend?' The trouble with living with someone was that they often knew too much about what you did.

'They're just disorganised,' Chandler said.

'I don't know how you can hold down a job if you're disorganised,' Monica said, 'I mean, where would I be if I didn't think ahead? Which reminds me, what are we doing for Valentine's day?'

'I'm planning a surprise,' Chandler said.

'Oh that's nice. What kind of surprise?'

'If I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise.'

'Is it dinner?' It would certainly include dinner so Chandler said,

'Yes.'

'Oh good. I don't want to do anything too fancy,' Monica said.

'Why's that?' He felt some misgivings about his plans then.

'Well Rachel would probably be okay, but Phoebe's really down. She's writing some dreadful songs.' Chandler looked blank until he realised that Monica meant, more dreadful than usual.

'What kind of songs?' Monica paused and frowned.

'"Black hole, I keeping falling into you, Black hole, in my soul, I'm not whole - " those sort of words. There's something in there about a cuttlefish too. She does that one really flat, like there's only two notes in it.'

'Oh,' Chandler said, 'She's not bringing her guitar tonight is she?' A fake emergency call to work might just be the thing he needed.

'No, but she needs company, so I want to be there for her.'

'She's got Rachel,' Chandler said. There are seven of us, he wanted to say, surely the other four can pitch in and help.

'But only I can see that she eats properly,' Monica said firmly. That was true enough. He had not believed that anyone could be worse than Rachel with food, until he had met Emily. Monica had been teaching her, so that they didn't have to live on whatever Ross made or on take out, but Chandler didn't know how far Emily had reached with the lessons. These had been interrupted by a minor rift when an impatient Monica had yelled at Emily because she had measured out 17 and a half ounces of something when it should have been 17 and three quarters. Emily had fled the apartment in tears, vowing to live on takeaway food for the rest of her life – oh and that Monica could stuff her kitchen scales somewhere anatomical too. Fortunately, they had made it up but Chandler was unaware of the results of the lessons so far.

'Well, Phoebe's certainly coming to the right place tonight.' Chandler looked at Monica who had resumed her work. He wandered over. There was a kitchen implement he wanted to explore.

'Chandler, don't mess things up,' Monica warned. He picked the thing he wanted out of the drawer, where it had lain, neatly arranged with the other things.

'What's this?'

'You know what that is,' Monica said, slightly impatiently, 'It's for brushing pastry. We don't need that.' Chandler grinned.

'It looks like fun,' he said, brushing the pastry brush along the back of her neck.

'Will you stop that? Now I'm going to have to clean it!'

'Then we might as well make the most of it, before you clean it,' Chandler said.

'Chandler, you don't interrupt people when they're cooking, it's dangerous,' she rounded on him and he tickled her nose.

'Can you possibly take a little break?' he asked. Looking into his eyes, she thought that she possibly could.


	3. Every Shade of Black

**Every Shade of Black**

Phoebe stood back from her latest painting, which she already hung it on the wall. It was a large canvas and unframed.

'What do you think?' Rachel hesitated before answering. It was better that Phoebe seemed to be a bit livelier, doing normal things. Her song writing had been normal, sort of, although extremely depressing. She didn't know quite what to say about this one though.

'Are you going to frame it?' Rachel asked, stalling for time.

'No.' Damn. Phoebe should explained why she wasn't going to frame it. Now Rachel was going to have to think of something else.

'Ah, why not?'

'I think any frame will spoil the lines of the work. I prefer the raw edges,' Phoebe said, and waited for Rachel's comment.

'It's very black,' Rachel said at last. That was true. Every square inch of canvas was covered in black paint.

'It's not all the same shade of black,' Phoebe said, as though Rachel's eyes needed checking.

'Oh.'

'See that bit?' she pointed, 'And that bit?' There were subtle differences. Black, extreme dark grey, and very very dark grey. These would be interesting in, say, a black skirt, but after all, you only saw a certain amount of black in a piece of clothing. This canvas was enormous, and it was really all too much.

'What is it meant to be?' Rachel asked.

'It's my view of human nature,' Phoebe said.

'Oh Phoebs,' Rachel said, 'That can't be right. I know that some people are rotten.' A certain taxi driver for one, although she associated with him a certain shade reminiscent of milk gone off. 'We're your friends, we've got human nature and we're not…' she waved her hands at the picture.

'Oh no, don't look at black in a negative way,' Phoebe said. 'It can be very comforting.'

'Huh?'

'It doesn't strain the eyes.' She stood back at the canvas. 'I like looking at this.'

'Oh.'

'Human nature is mysterious,' Phoebe said. 'Unknowable. You can't really tell what someone is going to do, what they're thinking or anything. You just think you know, but that's wrong.'

'Hmm,' Rachel said non committally. Just then, Joey walked in, looking for Rachel. He hadn't really wanted to come to Phoebe's. It wasn't that he was trying to avoid her exactly, but it was very disheartening when you spent time with a friend who wasn't seeming to cheer up no matter what. He'd even tried jokes and had received the most heartbreaking polite smiles in return. He tended to go away feeling bad himself.

'Hey, how you doin'?' he asked nervously.

'What do you think?' Phoebe asked. Joey frowned at the picture. He opened his mouth, shut it and then asked,

'Is it black coffee?' Phoebe sagged and threw herself in an arm chair.

'You hate it! You both hate it!'

'We don't,' Rachel rushed in, 'Black coffee is related to human nature, it's quite logical for Joey to say that.' Joey looked puzzled. He was totally lost. So was Rachel, having no idea where to go from here.

'Coffee and human nature?' Phoebe asked.

'Um, because everyone drinks coffee,' Rachel offered. 'They, er, bond over it.' She frowned at Joey to warn him off making any contributions. Her own were bad enough.

'Hmm,' Phoebe said.

'Anyway,' Rachel said, rushing in to prevent this unfortunate line of conversation from developing, or being analysed. 'This all reminds me that I don't know what I'm going to do this Valentine's day.' It was an extremely crude change of subject but Joey immediately followed through with,

'Oh you'll get a date in time.'

'I don't want a date thanks,' Rachel said, 'At least not yet. I'm going to be a bit more choosy about who I date. I don't want another taxi driver thanks.'

'That's right,' Phoebe said. 'I'm on my lonesome too, of course.'

'I've got a date,' Joey said brightly.

'We guessed,' Rachel said. 'I guess it's just me and you Phoebs.' Phoebe shrugged. Rachel realised that with one depressed friend, and everyone else she knew in couples it was going to be a problem. She could always spend the evening at home, being reminded of just what a freak she was, alone on Valentine's day… No way. 'You know what?' Rachel said, 'I'm going to take a trip. I'm going to go out of town on Valentine's day.' Then she wouldn't have to stay out of her friends' way because she'd be nowhere near them. She'd be too busy doing something else in another place on Valentine's day to give any of them a second thought. And when anyone asked her how her day was, she'd say… she'd say, "the weather in Florida was wonderful." Florida. 'I'm going to go to Florida.'

'Oh wow,' Joey said.

'Why don't you come with me?' Rachel asked Phoebe. To her great surprise, Phoebe said,

'Okay.'

'Good,' Rachel said, 'That's us all worked out.'

'Well great,' Joey said, 'Want to hang out in Central Perk now?'


	4. A Tale Of Several Suitcases

**A Tale of Several Suitcases**

**Emily and Ross**

Emily was busy packing. Ross had already done his packing and he sat on the bed, watching her select things to go in. It was one of the pleasures of life, lying around and watching her do things.

'Your bikini,' he prompted.

'Will it be warm enough for swimming?' Emily asked doubtfully. With the weather the way it was in New York, she had trouble believing in a warmer somewhere else, even though she realised that it was Florida they were going to. She took it out and held it up.

'Who said anything about swimming?' he asked.

'Well I suppose the water might be cold, but would it be warm enough to lie around on the beach?' Emily asked.

'Who said anything about lying around on the beach?' Ross teased. She stared at him briefly.

'Are you going to just sit there and make suggestive comments while I pack?' she asked.

'I can do more than that,' he said.

'I know,' she said.

'Why don't you try it on? See if it fits?'

'Ross!' Emily said exasperated, 'I'm trying to pack.' He smiled wickedly.

'It might be too small. You know.'

'I know what you're trying to do,' she said as she continued packing, 'You want me to get all outraged at the fact that you suggested that I might have put on weight, so I'll go over there and pinch your love handles –'

'I don't have love handles!'

'And then you'll grab my hands, and then before I know it we'll be rolling around on the bed.'

'And the problem with that is?'

'I won't get anything done!' she exclaimed, 'This has taken me half an hour already.' She packed a few more things in silence and then she got on the bed with him and kissed him.

'What did I do to deserve this?'

'Get born,' she said. 'But particularly for arranging this trip. It means so much to me that you want to make this day special, just for the two of us.' She wrapped her arms around him and he said,

'I love you Emily.'

'I love you Ross.' They kissed again and then she leaned with her head against his chest. 'Nobody knows?'

'No-one,' he confirmed. 'It will be just us, and everyone else will be here.'

'Mmm. You're wonderful,' she said. He decided he wanted to get more comfortable, but as he moved, he knocked her suitcase off the bed, upending it and tipping out everything. She sat up straight.

'Oh,' she said. Ross pulled her back, and after a brief struggle between duty and pleasure, she – and he – were saying 'oh' for other reasons.

**Monica and Chandler**

Monica had already packed her suitcases. She was wondering what else she should take, and whether she'd prepared enough. Going climbing in the Rockies was an interesting and original way to spend Valentine's day, and she'd been really surprised when Chandler suggested it. She'd asked him whether he was sure it wouldn't be too much for them. She knew that those sorts of trips were really arduous and she wasn't sure that she had the stamina required, and she wasn't so sure that he did either.

'We'll be fine,' Chandler said. 'We'll just take some gentle walks, enjoy the mountain air, go for a swim…'

'A swim?' Monica stared. 'Are you crazy? I'm not swimming in any mountain streams in the middle of winter.' Or at any other time, she added to herself, unless of course she was really really drunk and it was really really dark and it was really really hot. Which February in the Rockies would not be.

'Oh, of course not, joke,' Chandler grinned. Monica gave him a puzzled look. She didn't think all of Chandler's jokes were funny, but they sort of made sense – a snappy one liner in response to something someone else had said, or, if he'd constructed the joke whole, there would be something followed by a punchline. You always knew it was a punchline, whether it was good or not, although it usually was.

'I bet no-one else is doing anything like this,' Chandler said.

'No,' Monica said.

'You haven't told Rachel have you?'

'Why are you suddenly being so mean to Rachel?' Monica asked.

'I'm not, I just want it to be special to us,' Chandler argued.

'So special that it has to be a total secret?' Monica asked.

'Well, yes.' Monica shrugged.

'I just don't think Rachel would be that interested anyway,' Monica said, 'She said she already had plans.'

'Oh good.'

'I don't like the way you said that, Chandler, as though she's always hanging around us.'

'I just want some special time alone with you,' Chandler said.

'I know that, and Rachel's not going to want to hang round with us. She knows it's our special day.' He wasn't worried about Rachel, or Phoebe, or even Joey – it was Monica who made the overtures, more often than not. She was happy, which was a good thing, but she wanted to make sure she was sharing it. 'Now, let's get you packed,' she said. Chandler was suddenly grateful that he hadn't made a start – how would he be able to explain the beach wear and no hiking boots that he would have packed. He would deal with the problem of packing the right things for both of them, later.

**Rachel and Phoebe**

Rachel and Phoebe were headed towards the airport terminal, each of them wishing that they hadn't packed so much. When Rachel had been packing her own bag, she'd been certain that all sorts of things might happen in Florida. She wasn't going there to meet a man, definitely not, but at the same time, there were night clubs, there were beaches, there were shopping malls, and all of these places required thought as to what outfit to wear. Plus she had to have back up clothes instead.

Phoebe had not packed many clothes, but she was bringing her guitar, and her painting things, which made her luggage bulky and awkward.

'I might paint on the beach,' she said.

'You'd better paint on the beach, after the trouble you're going to bring those things.'

'I just hope I get inspired.'

'How could you not be inspired? You could paint a sunset. You could do all the effects of sun on the water.'

'You can't paint sunsets on the water in Florida,' Phoebe said.

'Why not?' Rachel asked, wondering if it was something that had been banned or that you needed a licence for.

'Because the sun sets in the west, but the ocean's over to the east. There was this film once that they shot on the east coast, and they wanted a sunset, so they filmed a sunrise and ran the tape back.'

'That was clever,' Rachel said, feeling a bit stupid.

'Yes, but there was a seagull in the picture, so when they ran the tape back, it was flying backwards.'

'Oh,' Rachel said. 'What film was this?'

'I can't remember, but it doesn't matter because I could do a sun rise instead,' Phoebe said. This sounded more promising than anything Phoebe had said for weeks, so Rachel smiled and said,

'Yes, Phoebe, paint a sunrise.'

AN: If anyone knows the name of this film could they include it in a review please?


	5. On The Beach

'Do you want to stop walking now?' Ross asked. They had been walking for some time along the beach. The day hadn't been warm enough for bikinis, much to Ross's disappointment, but they had been walking barefoot along the edge of the water. Emily seemed to have boundless energy, but Ross didn't.

'Oh, sorry, are you tired?' Emily asked, taking his hand.

'I wouldn't mind stopping for a drink, maybe something to eat,' he said truthfully.

'Well, let's do that then,' Emily said, turning away from the sea and leading the way up from the beach. She couldn't resist a backward glance at the ocean, and Ross realised that she didn't really want to leave it yet. She had enthused about the beach, the sand and everything and he had been shocked to learn that the only beach she'd been on before had only had pebbles.

'You've never had a sandcastle?' he had asked, in amazement.

'No,' she'd replied. She'd missed so much. So they had spent an hour making a sandcastle by way of interruption to their journey on the beach. They had asked some children very nicely for a loan of their model shapes, so that the castle walls could have starfish and shell motifs. Pleased with their production, they had taken photographs of it for later. Emily was having a wonderful time.

Not wanting her to lose any more time than she had to, Ross said,

'Why don't you sit on the beach here, I'll bring us both back something to eat and drink.'

'I can't let you go on your own,' Emily said, but there was a tone in her voice that suggested that she really wanted to stay where she was.

'Yes you can. It won't take me long,' Ross instructed.

Leaving Emily on the beach, he went to a café to order some take away coffees.

'Strong, really strong,' instructed a familiar voice in front of him.

'Chandler!' yelped Ross.

'Ross!' Chandler spun round to see him.

'What are you doing here?' they asked simultaneously, and then looked over each other's shoulder for the missing woman, not seeing her. 'Chandler, how did you get here?' Ross demanded.

'Well I've often been puzzled myself over that question, but amazingly one day mom and dad got together – ' he broke off at Ross's irritated looked. 'There was a good deal on flights in the paper and I wanted to get away from everything with Monica, so I booked one.'

'So did I,' wailed Ross. 'I saw an ad in the paper – it was the paper you left behind in fact. I just wanted to do something special, to get away.' The two men looked at each other aghast. Ross had to be prompted by the server several times before he remembered to give his order. 'N-not that I'm not happy to see you, but, this is supposed to be Valentine's Day and – '

'Yeah, well that was my idea too. It was supposed to be just for us, just this one day. Now I suppose we'll have to get together.' Chandler didn't sound very happy about it.

'It'll be good, yeah,' Ross said, sounding doleful.

'I mean we're friends, after all,' Chandler said. There were something friends definitely didn't do together. He looked at Ross speculatively. 'Well, why can't we pretend nothing's happened?'

'Huh?'

'We can go back – you go back to Emily, I'll go back to Monica, and we'll pretend we never saw each other. Problem solved.'

'It doesn't work like that, not with us,' Ross moaned. 'You wait and see, something will happen. Probably right now, Monica is out there on the beach and she'll have met Emily and they'll be talking when I get back.'

'Well Monica's not on the beach. We were planning to go though,' Chandler said. 'If we can just avoid each other for the next day and half it will work. For example, if you've been on the beach all morning, you'll probably want to go half an hour. So you go, and then I bring Monica here, and we spend the afternoon here while you go – somewhere else.'

'You think that will work?' Ross asked doubtfully.

'Well, I've got an itinerary, and I can tell you that we'll be sticking to it,' Chandler said, pulling a list out of his pocket and showing Ross. It was a list made in Monica's precises handwriting. Ross pulled out his own list. 'See if you change around that – '

'Hey, why should I be the one to change?' Ross asked indignantly. 'You should change. I'm a married man, plus I'm older than Monica.'

'You want to ask Monica to change?' Chandler said, in the tone of one who knows full well he holds the trump card.

'Yeah – er good point. Not that I wouldn't be afraid of arguing with Monica, if I wanted to her to know I was here.' Ross felt it was important to make this point clear, and Chandler decided not to irritate Ross by smirking at him.

'Oh there you are,' Emily said when he arrived back, 'I was getting worried about you. I nearly came to look for you.' Ross handed her a coffee.'

'The service was terrible,' he lied. 'The further south you go, the slower they are.'

'Ugh,' Emily said, 'It's a bit cold.' Ross sipped his coffee too and agreed.

'Stupid people,' he said, 'they don't even know how to boil water. Say, you know what? Why don't we go somewhere else and have a proper sit down lunch. There's more than just the beach you know.'

'All right,' Emily said.


	6. Pas De Trois

Chandler headed back to the hotel where Monica would be waiting. He'd gone to a lot of effort to organise this trip and nothing was going to spoil it now.

Monica had been very surprised when Chandler had sprung it on her at the airport that they weren't going to the Rockies after all but to Florida. She had wanted to go straight home to unpack her hiking gear and pack something more suitable, but they had only just arrived in time, so had to board regardless.

Annoyed that Chandler had tricked her, she had made him carry everything – which served him right because most of what he'd made her pack was useless and very heavy. But by the end of the plane trip, her mind had turned to what they were going to do in Florida.

'We might as well make the most of it,' Monica said.

'That was the point,' Chandler grinned. But what Monica had meant was tourism. By the time they'd left the airport, Monica had a handful of leaflets on what to see and do and was already go through what could be done in the short time that they had. By the end of the cab ride, she had already produced a list of what they were going to be doing and when.

Chandler resigned himself to her organisation because it saved him effort, and he didn't any alternative ideas anyway – his main idea had been to get out of New York without anyone knowing where they were going. He was pleased to see that his compliance made Monica mellow towards him. He was also pleased to see that his thoughtfulness in packing Monica some lighter weight clothes in his own luggage was returned by the sweetness he'd been looking forward to.

Meeting Ross had been unfortunate, but at least it had just been the two of them and at least they had come to an arrangement. Easy. He could continue to enjoy the break and pretend that the two of them were alone – were alone…

In the hotel foyer, he came to a sudden stop, staring at the people he saw hanging around the front desk.

The people stared at him.

'What are you doing here?' Rachel asked in accusing tones. This was a bit much for Chandler who had already had to put up with Ross stealing his idea. He might not have known that he'd stolen it, but stolen it he had.

'I could ask you three that,' Chandler said. Phoebe and Joey were also there. He had remembered Joey boasting about his Valentine's day plans and what he could remember did not involve Florida.

'We are on a holiday, which we're perfectly entitled to be on,' Rachel said, pointedly 'You were going to the Rockies.'

'You weren't supposed to know that,' Chandler exclaimed. Monica! She couldn't be trusted to keep just one little secret…

'I know,' Rachel said sourly. 'I don't know why you think I'd care.'

'Or me,' Phoebe said.

'Or me,' Joey added truculently.

'Oh come on,' Chandler said to Joey, 'You tried to get me drunk the night before last so that I would tell you what we were doing.' Joey was in no position to pretend indifference.

'Oh yeah, I did,' Joey said, crestfallen. Rachel brushed this to one said and said,

'Phoebe and I aren't the slightest bit interested in butting in on you two. We're here for a break – Phoebe's going to paint and I'm going to the beach.'

'And shopping,' Phoebe said slyly.

'I hope you're not the slightest bit interested in butting in on Ross and Emily either,' Chandler said.

'What?' the others all said together.

'Ross and Emily are here?' Phoebe asked.

'Hey are you doing this like a double date thing?' Rachel asked.

'Wow,' Joey said.

'Shut up,' Chandler said, 'No we didn't plan it. It was a total accident, which neither Monica nor Emily knows about, and we plan to keep it that way.'

'Oh,' Rachel said. 'So you guys are trying to keep out of each others way.'

'Got it,' Chandler said.

'Which means,' Phoebe said, 'You really want us to stay out of your way too.'

'Uh, yes,' Chandler said.

'We already booked into this hotel,' Phoebe said, and Chandler noticed for the first time that she was holding a room key. 'And we managed to get a room at short notice for Joey. It's going to be difficult for us to get somewhere else now.'

'I'll help you,' Chandler said.

'You'll have to help us pay for it,' Rachel said. 'I can't speak for the others but I don't have much spare money.'

'I don't have any,' Phoebe said.

'I had to borrow money to be here,' Joey said.

'And why are you here Joey? You had plans.' Chandler said.

'She dumped me,' Joey said, not looking particularly unhappy about it. Phoebe cleared her throat.

'So relocating to stay out of your way is going to be difficult.'

'Oh, right,' Chandler said. He'd split the cost with Ross, whether he liked it or not.

Organising alternative accommodation for the others and squaring up itineraries with them had been difficult without Monica knowing. She had already asked questions about why he had been so long out, and he had had to make up a story about being lost. In the middle of all that, he had to get in contact with Ross without Emily finding out. Ross had immediately blamed him for the others being there, which was extremely aggravating and would have provoked a serious quarrel if the two women involved had not each suddenly walked into the room.

There had been a lot of near misses. Once Emily and Rachel had been in the same shop but neither had noticed the other and Ross had pulled Emily out of the store before she saw Rachel. Monica had actually caught a glimpse of Joey on the beach and had remarked on this to Chandler, who had said,

'What, no way, that guy was much fatter than Joey.' Well it served Joey right.

'You're right,' Monica said, instantly forgetting about him.

They had had a wonderful candle lit dinner and one of the best nights afterward that they had ever had, just the two of them. Perfect, Chandler had thought. He'd had to carry everything back to the airport again and one of their bags got lost on the flight back to New York, but nothing could spoil it. He'd succeeded.

Ross too, was pleased. He'd also reaped the rewards for the trip away. Emily had said,

'I'm so happy that you made this day just for us,' and had then gone on to show him how happy she had been.

Rachel, Phoebe and Joey, had kept very quiet when Emily and Monica talked over their amazement at having been in Florida at the same time and not having seen each other. They avoided looking at Ross and Chandler, who also pretended to be surprised. It would be pushing credulity too far to admit that they also had been there, and gosh, didn't see anyone they knew at all.

Valentine's day was the start of Phoebe's Florida series, although she had only publicly come out with that name after everyone had talked about their Florida holidays. It was safe enough, because nothing she painted reminded anyone of Florida.


End file.
